About

The Association

The Thunder Bay International Baseball Association (TBIBA), a not-for-profit organization, was created in late 2002, with its primary objective being to bid for and host national and international baseball events. The TBIBA aspires to be regarded by the national and international amateur baseball communities as the organization to stage well run, well received and professionally managed championship events played on world class facilities.

In 2004, the TBIBA first achieved early success in winning the rights to stage the 2004 Baseball Canada Cup. This is a junior competition for players 17 years of age and younger, in which all provinces were competing for the championship title.

Following the success of this event, the TBIBA submitted bids to host the 2006, 2008 and 2010 World Junior Championships. On November 30, 2020 the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) selected Thunder Bay to host the 2010 Junior AAA World Championship.
The successful hosting of the 2010 Junior AAA World Championship is not the end, but merely the next step in establishing the TBIBA and the City of Thunder Bay as serious contenders in hosting events of this stature on a regular basis.

With this is mind, the TBIBA plans to bid on other International caliber events for Thunder Bay. These include:

  • The IBAF Women’s World Championships
  • The IBAF World Under 17 Championships
  • The FISU World Championships
  • The World Children’s Baseball Festival
  • Americas Qualifying events for future IBAF World Cups and World Junior events under the umbrella of COPABE, America’s Continental Division of the IBAF

The possibility also exists to bid on Little League World Championships for the Junior, Senior or Big League divisions. The TBIBA also has the potential to host training camps for the Canadian National team and for other National team programs that may be playing in International tournaments in Canada or the United States. The goal is to see these events occur between 2011 and 2025 utilizing local facilities to create a single sport “ hot spot”, a baseball centre of excellence, in the centre of North America.

Baseball Ontario’s affiliated organization in Northwestern Ontario is
the Thunder Bay Baseball Association (TBBA). The Thunder Bay Senior Baseball Association (TBSBA) is the local organization under the umbrella of the TBBA. The TBBA and TBSBA fully support the Thunder Bay International Baseball Association to act on its behalf at arms length in order to increase Thunder Bay’s chances in hosting events like the 2010 World Championships.

Leave a Reply